The Softness of Things
Week 9, BadHat



Interaction. Reaction. Make something interactive. What a difficult
task. Before reading Usman's article, I was thinking, "no problem, I'll
just make some clothes and play with the lilypad and a few sensors."
After reading the article, my thoughts changed to, "crap, I actually
have to make something interactive". So the being lost part of the
assignment began.

My breakthrough came in talking to Thomas. We were discussing Paul's
cybernetic loops, and Tom said, "I think an interactive device can be
thought of as having more than one loop". Well, a device can have many
loops and still be reactive, but the thought is a good start. "Do
something to the object, then do something else". From this mentality
my idea solidified. Perhaps it was because I was thinking how folks are
always sleeping in Red's class, but the thought of a device which kept
you awake came to mind.

I had been thinking about wanting to make a piece of clothing and use
the lilypad with a vibe motor. Why not make a troublesome hat? I
don't remember why the thought came up, but I recall thinking it would
be great to have a hat to wake you up when you nod off in class. I
could get this effect by simply adding an accelerometer and vibe motor
to the hat. Why not then give the hat an attitude?

If you nod off and don't let it know you've woken up, not only will the
vibration not stop, but it will start making sounds! Totally called
out! If you continue to sleep, then it will make sounds to be
troublesome, but also let those around you know that you need to be
woken up.

Before making the object, I designed a cybernetic loop. First I started
with Paul Pangaro's teachings about the initial loop (assuming I
understood correctly).



Next I wrote my loop out. I thought it was okay, but look at the loop to
the bottom right. From Buzzing it is going to No Buzzing, then back to
Buzzing. This is obviously incorrect. It should go from Buzzing to No
Buzzing, then back to the initial state. Writing this loop out helped
iron out details of the implementation before building even began. When
will buzzing be on or off? When the speaker plays will the buzzing
continue?



This is my final diagram. While it differs from the format Paul
introduced us to, I think it describes the various states accurately,
and also demonstrates when the actions occur.



-- Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:36 -0500

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